Monthly Archives: November 2014

Jan Gorgol, Product Manager at Surface Measurement Systems Ltd based in London has put together an interesting blog on the impact of moisture on modern microscopy. We hope you like it!

Moisture affects a huge range of materials in very broad industries and research areas.

One of many tools used in characterising moisture effects is Microscopy , ranging from light microscopy including dark-field, light field or cross-polarisation to Raman or FTIR microscopy’s and more esoteric imaging techniques such as Atomic Force Microscopy , 3D X-Ray Tomography or PAM.

Some of the diverse areas where different kinds of microscopy can be effectively used to study the effects of moisture and humidity on real life situations include:

Pharmaceutical

Studies of crystallisation of amorphous samples under humidification including hydration of stable and unstable hydrates, deliquescence and liquefaction of hygroscopic samples, co-crystallisation and solvate desorption at high humilities.

Polarized light microscopy and birefringence can be used effectively to study Crystal morphological growth. Polymorphism can be studied by Raman, FTIR, and light microscopy. [1]

These are just a few areas where microscopy can be valuably used to study the effects of changing humidity on real life sample. To help meet Scientists and Technician’s many needs in these areas Surface Measurement Systems have developed an environmental microscopy cell GenRH-Mcell [3] to enable precise critical humidity Microscopy studies in situ.The RH probe chosen for this cell was supplied by Rotronic based on its accuracy, small footprint and excellent quality.

About the author:
Jan Gorgol studied Physics at Bristol University followed by a Masters at Brunel University while running XPS & SEM at the Experimental Techniques Centre. After working extensively in Surface science instrumentation globally he now is Product Manager for the GenRH series of humidity generation products at Surface Measurement Systems Ltd.